Banks, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Investments

This means that in the future, the bank's covered bonds will be rated only by Standard & Poor's Rating Services (S&P) and Fitch Ratings Ltd (Fitch), writes LETA.

Danske Bank has three cover pools (Cover Pool D, Cover Pool I and Cover Pool C) from which rated covered bonds are issued. All three cover pools are rated by S&P and Fitch. Cover Pool D and Cover Pool I were previously rated by Moody's Investors Service Ltd. (Moody's) as well.

"The market standard today is for covered bonds to have only one or two ratings," says Steen Blaafalk, Treasurer, Senior Executive Vice President at Danske Bank.

"Since it is resource-consuming to use three rating agencies, we have chosen to reduce the number to two and consolidate the rating of the Bank’s covered bonds with S&P and Fitch. We do not believe this will have any significance for pricing or for investors," Blaafalk said.

The decision has no affect on Danske Bank's further collaboration with Moody's.

Moody's will continue to rate Danske Bank and its subsidiary, Sampo Bank, including covered bonds issued by Sampo Bank.